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Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Wellness Wednesday: BPA

Image from preventdisease.com

Let’s just get right to it: as a ginger and the daughter of a stage 4 breast cancer fighter, I
don’t need anything else to be messing with my hormones. We can’t change our
genetics so I make every effort to watch what I put in and on my body and encourage
others to do the same. This
article on the HuffPost blog discusses how exposure to bisphenol A (BPA)
has some seriously scary side effects. Studies are even showing that exposure
during pregnancy can cause health problems in later generations - even if those
generations are not directly exposed to BPA. Ladies and Gents, we are talking
about lowered sperm counts, damaged uteri in females, and obesity, just to name a few – yeah, I thought that might get your attention. BPA
is commonly found in plastic food and water packaging/bottles and safety
concerns over the organic compound have sparked efforts to produce BPA-free
products; however, the chemical
substitute for BPA-free doesn’t look to be that much safer.

Like I said, seriously scary. But I am a half-glass-full
type of person and I like to think that findings like this help us in more than
one way, both of which support the work I do at the SJVCEO and Wild Ginger Wellness. We just
read about the toxic effects on our health, but what about the environment? Plastic
manufacturing utilizes petroleum, which has the potential to be highly toxic,
and requires a significant amount of energy. Plastics can also take up to 1,000
years to degrade so they sit in landfills or in our water supplies, further
polluting.

What can we do?

Image from plasticfreebottles.com

This topic is something that has weighed heavy on me lately
because I do bring my lunch to work every day and like most people, I have my
fair share of plastic Tupperware. Last time I checked, plastic containers weren’t
the only type of packaging available. While it isn’t as lightweight, use glass
or stainless steel containers when storing and transporting food. My goal is to
replace all plastic storage with glass counterparts (note to self: update
wedding registry). Glass and stainless steel alternatives are safer to use
(especially when storing warm items), more durable, and last much longer
without getting dingy like their plastic friends. Let’s also re-start the trend
of being civilized again and use anything but plastic eating utensils. And
those with little ones, don’t forget about researching alternatives
to plastic bottles and those toys that end up in your kids’ mouths.There are countless ways to keep ourselves and our
environment healthy and avoiding products with BPA is most definitely one of
them. For my fellow holistic health nuts, I also suggest this
blog post for further reading on ‘conscious consumption’ – just a few more
things to think about which can help save money, energy, and, of course, our
health.

Note to reader: I do
also recognize the benefits of plastic, particularly in its role in saving lives
- helmets, bullet proof vests, car seats, etc. This blog post primarily
concerns those plastics that are related to food/beverage packaging/containers.
As with any post topic, I encourage our readers to do their own research and
formulate their own, educated opinions.